BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Take back

8 comments on Take back

Take back
: The pundits were saying tonight that Dean would have to soften his take-back-America campaign theme. They were wrong. He came out shouting that tonight.

: Command Post is doing a great job on the election.

: Josh Marshall: “Stunning. Actually, stunning doesn’t stunning doesn’t really do it justice.”

: Note that the winner of tonight’s race isn’t John Kerry. It’s JohnKerry.com. That’s the name on the podium. That’s the plug he made sure to make. He wants the Internet, too.

: On Dean’s blog comments, you find plenty of references to “the bat.” For those late to the party, here’s what that means:

Each time the campaign launches a fundraising challenge, Mele places a baseball bat on the “Dean for America” Web site. Often it is Dean’s own supporters who demand the bat, which has developed a game-show-like following, that encourages people to contribute money instantly through their credit cards. The bat fills up like a thermometer to indicate the campaign’s progress.

: Every one of the speeches tonight was a class act — except Dean. He didn’t come off as presidential. He came out screaming like a coked-up coach: in your face, a little scary.

: Howard Kurtz says the pundits pooped out:

The impressive showing in Iowa by Kerry and Edwards — and the failure of Howard Dean to blow everyone away — is already being depicted by the media as a “surprise,” a “dramatic turn of events,” a “stunning upset,” and so on. But since no one really knew what was going to happen in these frigid meetings, it was mainly a surprise because the press for so many months had been trumpeting a Howard Dean-Richard Gephardt showdown….

To put it mildly, you didn’t read it here first.

In other words, just about everything you heard and read about the Iowa caucuses in November and December was wrong. Particularly those endless pieces about the importance of strong grass-roots organizations. The press would have done better if all the reporters had taken a long vacation.

The Fourth Estate has now gotten Dean wrong twice. Underestimating him in early 2003, overestimating him going into ’04.

8 responses to “Take back”

  1. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    Uh, Jeff, I thik in this context “would have to” means “if he’s got any sense at all”, which frankly is pretty questionable.
    I think yelling at everyone for not agreeing with him is just Dean’s personality. How’d he miss being a surgeon?

  2. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    Thanks for explaining the bat thing.
    I hate to say it, but as someone who has dealt with a whole lot of strange people, fringe people, because of some of my hobbies (UFOs), the people on the Dean blog seem an awful lot like a cult members to me.

  3. rivlax Avatar
    rivlax

    This should be no surprise. The press USUALLY gets it wrong. Just go back and check. They hide that fact by jumping on the correct bandwagon with language like “Many pundits had been predicting…” and “The conventional wisdom was…”, as if everyone but THEM had it wrong. And it’s not just politics. Remember all the wrong “conventional wisdoms” of the recent past: the Afgham winter, the Arab street, etc. The media perennially rank below carnie barkers and used-car salesmen in public-confidence polls, but with their actual track record it’s amazing they rate as high as they do.

  4. EB Avatar
    EB

    I really love Howie Kurtz’s new blog, he seems to really enjoy it… I wish his show on CNN “Reliable Sources” was more like his blog! They were trying to make it more magaziney, and I lost interest in it. I’d rather read his blog.
    Jeff Jarvis: you mention that blogs are a tool and work best when they are a conversation, but I think they work very well as tools for readers to sample the world through the alembic of an interesting person’s brain. It combines personality and intellect and is very different from other main stream reporting. Long Live the blog.

  5. John Edwards Avatar
    John Edwards

    The media did an embarrassingly poor job in Iowa. Take the focus on Gephardt’s (and Dean’s) union support. It became boilerplate: Blah blah blah Gephardt has the support of Iowa’s powerful industrial unions and their extensive organizations blah blah blah. Meanwhile, where was the on-the-ground reporting on how the unions were–guess what–not so powerful? Gephardt pulls 11% and no one sees that coming? Instead we had an echo chamber of punditocracy, going on about what everyone thought was the story just because everyone thought it was the story. I hope we take some lessons into the remainder of the campaign from this. We should all be chastened.

  6. Jack Tanner Avatar
    Jack Tanner

    “Stunning. Actually, stunning doesn’t really do it justice.”
    Sure signs of cult brainwashing. Deans starting to make LaRouche seem mainstream.

  7. John Irving Avatar
    John Irving

    I keep hearing Dean say he wants to take America back. Okay, fine. But I’d prefer a candidate who wants to take America forward.

  8. djspicerack Avatar
    djspicerack

    If Dean starts throwing chairs and such, then I’ll be really worried.
    Last night, I did find Keith Olbermann on MSNBC interesting when he used the phrase “Deaniacs” to refer to the Dean supporters. Haven’t heard that on television as normal jargon yet…